Friday, July 13, 2007

Conrad Black Found Guilty in Fraud Trial

According to the New York Times, Black was was found guilty today by a Chicago jury of three counts of mail fraud, one count of obstruction of justice but not of racketeering.

He could face up to 35 years in prison.

He is expected to appeal and the judge is expected to allow him to remain free on bail during that process.

In addition to his potential incarceration, Black also faces more than $1 billion in civil litigation from former shareholders of Hollinger International, the company itself and the S.E.C.

The Times goes on to note that:
Though Mr. Black’s lawyers say he will appeal, the verdict today would seem to write a career coda for a member of a dwindling species, at least in these parts: the swashbuckling newspaper mogul. They used to loom large, the Northcliffes and Pulitzers and Hearsts, the Beaverbrooks and the Robert Maxwells, but with most newspapers in the English-speaking world now in more corporate hands, the Citizen Kane types are getting ever scarcer; and the one great exception to the trend that springs fastest to mind bestrides a much broader media and entertainment empire, one where the newspapers sometimes seem to play only a supporting role.

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